The deal, aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, was announced Tuesday morning.

Obama has hailed it for its tough standards on Tehran, but it quickly ran into skepticism in the Republican-led Congress. It also became an instant issue on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, with GOP frontrunner Jeb Bush calling it “appeasement” and Hillary Clinton – Obama’s former secretary of state – saying it was an important step.

In exchange for checks on Iran’s nuclear program, the deal lifts sanctions including on the country’s energy sector. Traders on Wednesday were continuing to mull the effect of the deal, and oil futures were lower.

Obama’s press conference today is aimed at Congress as much as the American public.

Lawmakers have 60 days to debate the deal publicly, and could vote on a joint resolution to approve or reject the deal – or not even vote. Obama has said, however, he would veto any legislation that scuttles the agreement.

Question 2: does it give you pause to see this deal praised by Syria’s Assad, and trashed by Israeli PM Netanyahu? His reply: It doesn’t give me pause that Assad or others in Tehran might be trying to spin the deal.

with respect to the medal of freedom, Obama says: we don’t have the mechanism to revoke it. And I don’t comment on the specifics of cases where there might be criminal or civil issues involved.

If you give a woman or a man a drug…and then have sex with that person without consent, “that’s rape,” Obama says, without mentioning Cosby’s name. Any civilized country should have no tolerance for rape, he says.